"John Norman - Gor 05 - Assassin of Gor " - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

The men began to hunt about the room, angrily.
"Where is Hup the Fool?" demanded the leader of the four men of the
proprietor.
"I shall have to look around for him," said the proprietor, winking at the
fellow with missing teeth, who grinned. "No," said the proprietor, apparently
looking about with great care behind the counter, "Hup the Fool does not seem
to
be here."
"It looks like we must search elsewhere," said the leader of the four men,
attempting to sound disappointed.
"It appears so," said the proprietor. Then, after a cruel pause, the
proprietor
suddenly cried out. "No! Wait! Here is something!" And, reaching down to his
feet behind the counter, picked up the small animal mass that was Hup the
Fool,
which shrieked with fear, and hurled it into the arms of the man with missing
teeth, who laughed.
"Why," cried the man with missing teeth, "it is he! It is Hup the Fool!"
"Mercy, Masters!" cried Hup, squealing, struggling in the grasp of his captor.
The other three men, hired sworks, perhaps once of the Caste of Warriors,
laughed at the frantic efforts of the tiny, sniveling wad of flesh to free
itself.
Many in the crowd laughed at the small fool's discomfort.
Hup was indeed an ugly thing, for he was small, and yet thick, almost bulbous,
and under the dirty tunic, perhaps that of the potters, there bulged the hump
of
some grotesque growth. One of his legs was shorter thatn the other; his head
was
too large for his body, and swollen to the left; one eye was larger than the
other. His tiny feet thrashed about, kicking at the man who held him.
"Are you truly going to kill him?" asked one of the patrons at the low table.
"This time he dies," said the man who held Hup. "He has dared to speak the
name
of Portus and beg a coin from him."
Goreans do not generally favor begging, and some regard it as an insult that
there should be such, an insult to them and their city. When charity is in
order, as when a man cannot work or a woman is alone, usually such is arranged
through the caste organization, but sometimes through the clan, which is not
specifically caste oriented but depends on ties of blood through the fifth
degree. If one, of course, finds oneself in effect without caste or clan, as
was
perhaps the case with the small fool named Hup, and one cannot work, one's
life
is likely to be miserable and not of great length. Moreover, Goreans are
extremely sensitive about names, and who may speak them. Indeed, some,
particularly those of low caste, even have use names, concealing their true
names, lest they be discovered by enemies and used to conjure spells against
them. Similarly, slaves, on the whole, do not address free men by their names.
Kuurus surmised that Portus, doubtless a man of importance, had been troubled
by